Presents in the mail...woohoo!

I have been very Blessed by my friends, both blogging buddies and here in Stillwater for my birthday. Oh and my family too, but today I'm going to show you what my sweet friends Miriam and Dianne sent me for the big day. Can you see the cute little babushka peeking out from these packages that Miriam sent?

Look at all of the red and white loveliness, scissor fob, red silk thread and a cute little babushka needle keeper.

I love it all, thank you so much Miriam, you are such a sweetie!
Dianne sent this beautiful cake plate...I had commented on hers months back and she took note of how much I liked it.

Here is a top view.

It goes great with my dishes and since I love red and I love cake, it will be put to good use! Thank you so much Dianne!
I am so glad that I took the plunge a few years ago and started my blog. I've met some really awesome and talented people and I think I've been challenged in my quilting. Did you know that I didn't care for applique a few years ago and now I LOVE it.
Okay here's my Hexie quilt all finished and just out of the dryer. Please do not judge the machine quilting...I don't like doing it and I'm not very good at it, but I'm determined to get better.

Very fun little quilt to make....thanks Pam :o)
Well a "cold" front just moved into Oklahoma...Yeah! Wish I could stay home and sew, but not today. Did you all see my new button on the side? Yep I've started Scandinavian Christmas by Lynette Anderson. I worked on the embroidery on the first block last night and it's sooo darn cute. If you click on the button you can see a picture of the entire little quilt....love it!

Have a great Tuesday! ranette

And the kit goes to....

Linda D. The random number thingy picked #18...cool huh?! I couldn't get it to copy and paste on my blog, so you'll have to take my word for it....lol
Linda send me an email with all of your details and I'll get the Fig Tree kit out this week. Congratulations!

I'd like to thank all of my blog buddies for the sweet birthday wishes for me and my sister. It's like I was able to extend the celebration around the world! My friends and family came over for a steak and chicken fajita dinner, with homemade tortillas and several different kinds of cake. Everyone was too kind and I'll be showing you a couple of my awesome gifts in upcoming blog posts.

I've been sewing a little bit in the last few days and I managed to finish my Kaffe Fassett Diagonal Madness quilt...

Not a wonderful picture, but it's huge! I'm thinking about trying to "big stitch" quilt this myself, but I'm just not sure if I can even baste it. I spent several hours basting this little quilt earlier today and it just about wore me out...lol

If anyone has any ideas of how to hand quilt in the white area with the embroidery, I'd really appreciate it. I can figure out how to do the blocks, but I'm lost on the rest of it.
I did machine quilt my Hexie quilt that I made a few weeks ago and I'll show a picture when I'm done with the binding. Quilting my quilts myself really takes me out of my comfort zone. I much prefer to send them off to my favorite long arm quilter, but my husband still hasn't found a job, so I really need to quilt them myself.
I started a new project, but I'll wait for a different day to show that one!
ranette

Well the big 50 is finally here ...

and I'm going to bore you with more pictures of me...lol...
Here I am on my 1st birthday.

I think I'm 5 in this picture or maybe 6.

Would you look at the hair when I was 7?!?! Too funny!

Okay...that's it, enough of me, but look at this...remember I told you God was going to cool down the weather...here are the clouds rolling in on Monday.

Isn't it wonderful?! Our temps have cooled by 10 to 15 degrees and we've had some pretty major rain in the last couple of days...I LOVE it!

Thank you so much for all of the sweet and kind birthday wishes for me and my sister. To clear up any confusion...I was born August 18, 1960 and my sister Pamela was born August 16, 1962...so you see we've always shared our birthday's and just partied for several days or the entire month, if I can get away with it :o)
Also if you haven't received a reply from me it could be because you are set "no reply" or because I got a new phone for my birthday and I can do my email on it, but I think I've messed up and lost a few emails.

Since everyone has been so patient and kind about birthday stuff, I'm having a giveaway for this quilt/wall hanging kit. The pattern and all of the fabrics for the top and binding (I think) are included. It's the same pattern as the wall hanging I made for Pam, only bigger and it's all Fig Tree fabric.

Just leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner on Sunday! Oh international is fine.

Have a Blessed day!
ranette

Happy Birthday dear Sister!!!

My sister Pamela has a birthday today! Pamela is one of the sweetest, kindest and most generous woman that I know and I've been Blessed to know her most of my life. Pam was actually my second birthday present...seriously and she has been my very best birthday present that I've ever received!

It's hard to find a picture of Pam without me in it...lol, but I managed to find this one. I think she's about 8 or 9 months here.

Here we are at Christmas time...we're probably 4 and 2 years old.

Pam are you 6 in this picture?

I'm thinking Pam's about 8 or 9 here.

And here's my gorgeous sister now....

Have a great day Pam....love you, ranette

Okay, now I can show you what I made for my sister.

I made this cute wall hanging using fabric from the Verna collection by Moda. Not only is that fabric a favorite for both my sister and I, but our grandma's name was Verna, so I thought that would make it special and the pretty button was from our other grandma's button box. Her name was Alyne. They've been gone now for quite a while, but Pam and I have fond memories of both of them.

I also made this bag/tote which was so much fun.

So you see I have been doing a little something around here.
Yesterday I treated myself to a new, easy hairdo...what do you think? Really you don't have to answer that....lol

There was a time in my life when I hated how I looked, but you know what...I really don't anymore. Maybe it's turning 50 or that I've realized how short life is. I've earned all the lines (hopefully they are laugh lines) and bags under my eyes.
It's time to go cook some dinner...Enjoy the weekend! ranette

I know I sound like a broken record, but I've lost several weeks....again!

How can it be the 12th day of August, already?!!! Maybe the heat has just fried my brain....lol....it's hot enough to do that I assure you. Right now my desktop says it's 104F and then you add the heat index to that and I'm sure it feels more like 110 outside...yuck. I know there will be a cool down next week because it's my birthday week and God always gives me a couple of nice days with just a hint of Fall in the air. I can't wait!

Speaking of birthday's...my sister's birthday is 2 days before mine and I've been working on a couple of small things for her gifts which is one reason I've not been posting. She likes to be surprised, but here's a sneak peek of one thing I made for her.

I'll put up pictures of her presents when she has them, maybe tomorrow or this weekend. I just hope you like everything Pam!
I finally am back to work on my Kaffe quilt and hope to get the top finished this weekend, but other than that I've not done much. Here are the last 3 completed Life is Beautiful blocks that I've finished stitching.

The sun was shining through this block.

Oh and how about some pretty flower pictures...

What a pretty red!!

Jay has done a wonderful job of keeping the flowers alive in this heat, oh and the Zinnia's attract butterflies so it's like walking through a butterfly garden to my front door...sweet!
I'm off now to get a little bit of sewing done! ranette

A quick finish....

It's Amy Butler's Sexy Hexy Love quilt and it was a fun one to make. Yes, my QADD is in full force....lol....it all started when my sister was here and she brought a kit to make this quilt. Well we got her started on her quilt and when she had enough fabric to make another one, guess who decided she had to make one too! Yup...me! Thanks Pam!!!

These aren't my normal colors or fabrics, but I really enjoyed working with them and it went together fast. Tomorrow I hope to pin baste it and maybe I'll get it quilted soon.

I'm not sure about this new background...what do you all think? Is it hard to read or distracting?

Time to get off of the computer now...later, ranette